While building this house cost effectively and debt free was a huge goal for us, the biggest goal was longevity.  We cut corners in some areas, but not in any areas that could potentially compromise the longevity and durability of the house, mostly in finding the best deals on good products.  My husband says, “a house is only as good as it’s foundation”.  We could have pushed a smaller budget honestly if we had not literally poured so much into the foundation, but it is so importaant we didn’t want to leave anything to chance.  We also live in a heavy limestone area and also not too far from a mine, so seeing too many compromised foundations in our lifetime, we built it tough.  Do note we still recommend checking all codes, laws and structural engineer input before making decisions on your own foundation. This is just what route we took and what we learned from it. 

Laying out the footprint of the foundation 

This was the first time we had broken out the use of the hypotenuse since high school, as we learned it is much harder than one would think to lay out the size of the foundation and get it level.  Lots of people have their techniques but, in the end, to get it spot on, we enlisted the use of a transit level which we should have done from the start.   

Leveling the playing field 

There are multiple ways of leveling the area you are going to be building on, but our method was to have the footers dug by a very reputable company who also promised he hit solid ground, but due to the slope of the property, it was stepped, and we decided to use block on top of the footers and then back fill it level with dirt and gravel before adding the concrete.  Our front was 12 blocks high and the back corner was 2 foot high, but in the end, you would never know when you look at it. We hired the block wall contractor, but purchased the blocks directly.  The guy we hired was highly recommended, extremely prompt, worked quickly and was incredibly inexpensive; it was a win-win.  We filled every block column with concrete for extra structural integrity (we were told every 4th would probably be good, but we wanted excessively stout foundation). It took a lot of gravel and we tried to start with dirt since it was cheaper, but all the local company brought was a very dense clay that didn’t spread well at all, so we needed to stay with gravel.  Also, we were worried how long it would take to really settle this gravel and ground under the concrete prior to the concrete, but since we didn’t have some good rain to help it settle faster, we used sprinklers to soak it really well and my husband drove heavy machinery over it as much as he could.  Then, to be sure, he rented a compacter and went over and over the gravel. 

*Note, we had serious concerns that filling the inside with gravel could push out the bricks so we did go ahead and add gravel to the outside walls before we filled the inside and we had to complete the French drain (below) before this point. 

Proactive moisture prevention  

We, of course laid out vapor barrier before the rebar and concrete and weigh it down which was a little difficult to keep it from blowing around, but we used some cinder blocks and brick we had, careful to not rip any of the barrier. So, tip for you DIYers, be prepared to fight it a little until you get to the rebar. In addition, we sealed the outside of the block with a water sealer since block can be so porous and after seeing so many basement issues (despite us not building this one on a basement) in the past, we wanted to alleviate any issues.  I still think this actually may have been one of the hardest parts of the whole building process because it was July heat and we were painting next to concrete black walls with very thick material.  Even though we were building the house up above the surrounding ground, my husband wanted to prevent any potential moisture issues.  We laid out the black drainpipe (French drain) all the way around the house along site the block wall along the outline of the footers that were dug and had it drain into the lowest point, covered that up with gravel. 

Plumbing 

This was laid after most of the gravel was filled in but not before all of it was in because a lot of the gravel covered up some of the piping.  So, the pipe was under gravel, then rebar, and then concrete, in case you were wondering.  Nothing to fancy here, but the absolute most important thing you have to know exactly where your plumbing is going or you will have some expensive fixes later.  We went by the ¼ bubble sloping method to keep the slope of the drainage in the right direction, but you may want to consult an expert here if this isn’t your comfort level because the last thing you want it bad plumbing drainage.  A couple of ideas we used for ours, a few places we had to have inlet piping going across the footer into where it would connect to the plumbing and where it connect to the septic, he used a larger pipe as a sleeve to help protect the pipe from all the gravel and potential heavy equipment driving over it so that it was floating inside of the larger pipe.  We kept the ends of the pipe covered all of the time to keep anything from going in them like debris. Also, something that really saved us was giving ourself a little buffer in case we were off say ¼ of an inch or so on the pipe location.  This one we had to get creative on, but we took really think bubble wrap and duct taped it onto the pipe at the base where the concrete would meet it.  After the concrete was poured and cured, we removed it and had given our self a bit of a gap all the way around.   

Rebar 

My husband works for a rebar manufacturer and we were able to, at the time, get rebar at scrap prices.  We used #5 rebar instead of the #4 at 16” squares (grid pattern).  I personally think investing in the plastic, nicer rebar chairs rather than the chincy metal chairs is a worthwhile investment.  We used several types because the stores were running out of the different types and had to buy whatever we could.  The better plastic chairs actually did make a bit of difference on how easy it was and how many times we had to pick up the chairs again when they fell over.  We tied the rebar at most intersecting points. 

He also put rebar set into concrete that was poured into the block columns in the shapes of L’s into the header blocks (I included a picture). 

Concrete contractors 

We did hire out the concrete contractors so that our concrete would be optimally finished and leveled so we didn’t have to build all the forms, but my husband did fashion a ramp form for the garage door entrance.  One suggestion is to think of a location (parking spot?) in case there is concrete waste at the end of your pour, have it prepped and ready for them to empty the concrete truck.  We also expressed to them, up front, that we wanted to stain the concrete for our flooring so they were especially cautious on our concrete.  They also came back after it had cured for about 48 hours and scored the concrete to “direct the cracks that naturally occur in the way we want them to go” which was highly effective because we have had the least amount of cracking I have ever seen after 3 years.  I will get to the staining of the concrete very soon. 

My husband and I did a lot of work along with help from our sons, but we hired out the footers being dug, the block work (masonry), and the concrete pouring, leveling, and finishing.  I tell everyone there is literally blood (from tying rebar), sweat (oh my word the sweat from sealing the block), and tears (because it was so tedious and tiring) in the foundation of this home.  It may be disheartening while you are working on something that feels so far away from the final product, but there is also pride in building it on something you had such a part in and it being so strong.